EU: Mastercard must drop fees or risk daily fines in Europe

[lovuian]

EU: Mastercard must drop fees or risk daily fines in Europe
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20071219-1023-eu-mastercard.html

BRUSSELS, Belgium – Mastercard must drop fees it charges for cross-border transactions or face daily fines of 3.5 percent of daily global turnover, European Union regulators said Tuesday.

The European Commission said that multilateral interchange fees charged to consumers for payments made in a different European country with either their MasterCard credit cards or Maestro debit cards unfairly inflated costs for retailers.


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EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes also warned that she would reopen a probe into Visa's fees on Dec. 31.

“Consumers foot the bill, as they risk paying twice for payment cards. Once through annual fees to their bank. And a second time through inflated retail prices, given that retailers set their prices taking account of all costs,” Kroes said, calling the fees “a tax on consumption.”

MasterCard said it would appeal to the EU courts, claiming the decision would lead to higher cardholder costs and fewer electronic payments.

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Get a Good look America

[RB TexLa]

1. Makes sense, if it's one market the cross border fees should be dropped

Seems the integration is there to render the fees unjustified.

[robbedvoter]

2. What? Our greedy businessmen - the new Ugly American? But, we're #!!

[spooky3]

3. "Class action suit spurs refunds of currency exchange fees"

Did you travel overseas in the past 10 years? If so you may be part of a class action lawsuit against Visa, Nastercard, etc. for a partial refund of exchange rate fees:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/money/2007/12/foreignexch_ref.html

Settlement website (to file a claim):

http://www.ccfsettlement.com/

[BB1]

4. Yeah you rock Neelie!

She's a funny lady, great political history. She singlehandedly took on Microsoft and won easily. The credit card companies are in for a tough fight.